Originally Posted by ThrobProng:
Women's sports only fail because women don't watch them. Women outnumber men in this country.
The NFL could lose every female fan and while revenue would dip, the league would be fine.
That’s not true. Women’s soccer is widely watched and heavily monetized. College women’s basketball has done pretty well. It’s the wnba that hasn’t caught on. And who knows… maybe it never will even with Caitlin Clarke.
Totally unrealistic to think they can match men’s sports, but why should they have to? If they can make enough money to turn a profit, which USWNT does but wnba does not, then it is not a failure. [Reply]
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501:
That’s not true. Women’s soccer is widely watched and heavily monetized. College women’s basketball has done pretty well. It’s the wnba that hasn’t caught on. And who knows… maybe it never will even with Caitlin Clarke.
Totally unrealistic to think they can match men’s sports, but why should they have to? If they can make enough money to turn a profit, which USWNT does but wnba does not, then it is not a failure.
Why is that unrealistic? There are more women than men in this country. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Pablo:
Women need to watch. It can’t just be dudes keeping women’s sports alive.
There’s some lesbian sports bar in Portland that only shows women’s sporting events. At least they’re leading by example. I couldn’t get my wife to watch a WNBA game for anything. She will willingly watch the Royals. Never seen her tune in for a softball game.
I listened to a podcast on this. There’s some chicken and egg stuff going on too. The idea behind this particular sports bar was that a bar like BWs often will not even show women’s sports even if they were asked to. So arguably a lot of people don’t watch women’s sports simply because they are not exposed to it.
I don’t think it’s a lesbian bar. It’s just owned by lesbians. I’m guessing it’s a place where lots of teen girls playing sports go to watch games too.
So to some extent the question is if someone truly invested in some of these women’s sports leagues would they thrive? Womens volleyball is a perfect example. It’s booming in Europe. And women’s soccer is only just now starting to his ground. And that volleyball trend seems to be carrying over nicely in the US. These are sports where arguably the league didn’t take off because people didn’t invest in it, not because there was never any interest. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ThrobProng:
Why is that unrealistic? There are more women than men in this country.
For the same reason mls will never be more popular than euro soccer. Mens American sports has decades upon centuries of roots and allegiances. Not to mention infrastructure from best in class game day experiences to marketing and by a mile… media that pumps a gajillion to maximize viewers.
On top of that we are only just now seeing a generation of young girls motivated to be pro athletes. Even still, it is in pursuing a dream to be a scholarship athlete. Unlike men’s where the dream is to become a multi millionaire.
Men betting better athletes plays into that too. But we’ve seen from women’s tennis and soccer that if you have marketable talent they can generate plenty of interest in spite of that. Alex Morgan and Caitlin clark are clear examples of that. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Pasta Little Brioni:
What is your problem? The world is full of talented women athletes, it's just that no one wants to watch it. What about that is false?
I'd nobody wants to watch it, why you in here shitting all over it?
Don't give a shit yourself? Don't bother posting in here. [Reply]
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501:
For the same reason mls will never be more popular than euro soccer. Mens American sports has decades upon centuries of roots and allegiances. Not to mention infrastructure from best in class game day experiences to marketing and by a mile… media that pumps a gajillion to maximize viewers.
On top of that we are only just now seeing a generation of young girls motivated to be pro athletes. Even still, it is in pursuing a dream to be a scholarship athlete. Unlike men’s where the dream is to become a multi millionaire.
Men betting better athletes plays into that too. But we’ve seen from women’s tennis and soccer that if you have marketable talent they can generate plenty of interest in spite of that. Alex Morgan and Caitlin clark are clear examples of that.
The root of the problem is that women's sports...especially team sports...generally aren't as entertaining as men's sports. If there was money to be made, people would invest in them, including plenty of men. [Reply]
When you look at the rise of women’s soccer it’s mind boggling that it took so long. And I think that’s the point. Are people just not interested in women’s sports or are people just too dumb to not pump money into it. Forget ratings, do you realize how much money Nike has made by creating a new category? Who knew? Girls who grow up playing soccer buy a shitload of soccer gear.
So yeah, there’s an argument to some extent that if you build it they will come, but nobody has been willing to build it. It was true for women’s soccer. I’d bet it will be true for volleyball too. It hasn’t yet translated to wnba for whatever reason. I’m not sure that it can, but who knows. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ThrobProng:
The root of the problem is that women's sports...especially team sports...generally aren't as entertaining as men's sports. If there was money to be made, people would invest in them, including plenty of men.
That’s bullshit. Women’s tennis is arguably just as popular as men’s despite way less marketing, or at least it was when Serena was around.
Women’s soccer, last years debacle aside, is extremely popular. It was underinvested for decades and I’m guessing when Nike started raking in billions they realized how damn stupid they were for not promoting it sooner.
And women’s pro volleyball is only just now getting started.
There was money to be made but no one with the proactive foresight to realize it. It’s chicken or the egg because you are assuming that without world class facilities, marketing, mega media deals some of these sports wouldn’t take off. [Reply]
